Tag: RSR

Race cars, by definition, don’t lead a pampered life. Often they’re tossed around, crashed, bashed, and driven hard when wet. They are infrequently all-original, as many go through multiple changes in rules (even within a single season) and need to evolve to remain current. Also infrequently do they stay with one owner, changing hands multiple times as the years pass more quickly than laps. Then, a generation on, they’re no longer competitive and shelved in favor of the newest, greatest and latest track weapon. In short, they’re pretty much a collector’s nightmare.

But over the past decade a growing appreciation for vintage motorsport means there is increasing attention focused on ex-factory race models. And, even though the air has cooled slightly on the Porsche market, it’s still at a pretty astronomic level. Put those two factors together with a low production period racer, and even though it’s far from original condition, it’s the recipe for enthusiast’s dreams and an asking price high enough to make small African nation dictator’s son feel jealous.

I wasn’t alive in the early ’70s so I don’t have the context for this, but I can imagine that during those years encountering a car like the 911 RSR on the street (bear with me on that) would be somewhat mind blowing. It has the muscular appearance we might associate with a muscle car itself – perhaps like an early Camaro – but in a much more compact design further drawing our attention to those muscular lines. It appears distilled to its essence. As a race car this all makes sense. Which is perhaps why seeing one built for the street – even if it is a fabrication rather than the real deal – always attracts my attention to such a high degree. Put simply: done right they look wonderful. They’re hard edged in their appearance, but also not. Showcasing beautiful curves and taut lines. For a build like this it is the details that matter and that ultimately will decide whether its asking price is worthwhile, but strictly on appearance the look is fantastic. This build began life as a 1975 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe. It sounds like it was in an accident in the ’80s and converted to a Slantnose so I’m assuming mostly front end damage. Some time later the current builder got a hold of it to develop what we see here. The engine is a built and turbocharged 3.4 liter flat-six mated to a 4-speed manual from the 930. From there, well, you’ll just have to read through the ad because there’s been a good bit of work. And it all comes together quite well.

I’ll just get this out of the way: properly speaking this 911 isn’t really a RSR build, meaning it hasn’t tried to replicate the mechanicals of those very special cars. What this build has done is take a 911T and completely alter its personality in a way that the RSR did during its time. The description provides a basic overview of the work, but the biggest item, and what I think differentiates this from a lot of the builds we see, is that this 911T now houses a 3.6 liter flat-six from the 964. This quickly distinguishes it from the 3.2 Carrera based builds that are much more common. The pictures aren’t the best for appreciating the metallic grey paint, but the appearance looks quite promising. That this car currently resides in Japan will make things difficult for a lot of buyers, but for those willing to put in the effort this 911 could be a pretty great.

On the verge of three years ago I took a look at a neat 911 Carrera RSR tribute. Rather than take the typical path of copying the IROC cars, the builder of this particular car chose the “Mary Stuart” Martini Racing example to clone. The car was named because the wrap around rear duck-tail spoiler reminded some of the high collars which were the vogue during Mary, Queen of Scots’ reign. With its unique tail offsetting those iconic colors, it is certainly an attention getter. However, the seller has now attempted to shift this car more or less continually since 2013 – first at an asking price of $165,000, then dropping in 2014 to $135,000, and now back up to $165,000 presumably to try to capitalize on the current 911 market. It is without a doubt a neat build and unique execution, so even though it’s unlikely to trade this time around again I thought it was worth another look:

The below post originally appeared on our site September 9, 2013:

I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I think Martini Racing colors are just awesome. Some people insist everything looks better in “Gulf Blue”, but for me, it’s those Martini stripes that made some of the best looking race cars (and in a very few cases, even improved road cars). Case in point is today’s example; perhaps one of the strangest downforce attempts of the 1970s on a Porsche – the Mary Stuart tailed Martini Racing RSR. While a neat design in some ways, it certainly looks odd from other angles. Today’s 1971 911 is a recreation of the original, but you can’t deny that it looks fantastic in the proper Martini Racing colors of the 1973 RSR:

As the final of my dream car posts we’ll settle in to the Amelia Island auctions for a group of exquisite Porsches and some of the most expensive available. Rather than stunning and rare color combinations these Porsches attract our notice through their historical relevance and, for many of them, their longevity. By now most are aware of Jerry Seinfeld’s love of Porsches; it’s been a long documented affair ever since the comedian became known across the world. He has decided to sell quite a few of them – 18 cars in all, 16 of those being Porsches – at Gooding & Company’s Amelia Island Auctions on March 11. None of the cars are inexpensive – the lowest priced likely being his 1960 Volkswagen Beetle – and many of them will stretch well into seven figures. For fans of Porsches it’s a very interesting time as many of Seinfeld’s cars are near impossible to find in this condition, with some of them near impossible to find at all. I have chosen a few examples to show here that particularly caught my eye. I won’t go through the details of each car since those details are extensive and well chronicled on the auction listing for each. Click through to read about each car’s history and also to view the rest of the Seinfeld lineup at Amelia Island:

Over the weekend I took advantage of some frankly great streaming video from the IMSA Racing application to view some of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. And the action was thrilling, with several classes being decided not in the last hour, but in the last minutes. Of particular interest to me was the GTLM category, where Porsche had been going round after round with team Corvette over the past few years. And while they weren’t challenging for the overall victory, it gave me pause to consider Porsche’s contribution to racing. You see, Porsche has recorded 22 overall victories at Daytona, but what’s perhaps more impressive is the claimed 77 class victories they’ve claimed. It wasn’t to be this year, but one of the 991 RSRs did make it to the podium. Fitting, then, that we should look at one of the more impressive and expensive variants of the 911 RSR; the 993 Cup 3.8. Only 30 of these racing variants were produced; less even than the road-going 3.8 Carrera RS with which it shared its name. Lightened, widened and with something like 400 horsepower coming from the race-prepared motor, these are still seriously potent track weapons today some 20 years later:

One of the consistent criticisms of cars like the one we see here is that their level of execution and performance never seem to match their high price tag. I guess we can call this the Singer problem. Singer, as most are aware, produces bespoke backdated 911s that combine many of the best performance parts with the best aesthetic features, both inside and out. Each build is individual and in many ways a work of art. They are also incredibly expensive. Some builders seem keen to follow Singer’s lead without nearly the same quality and performance, and then hope to still extract high prices (even if they aren’t as high as those charged by Singer itself). The car here comes with the typical very high price tag, but in this case there is a lot more going on performance-wise than in other builds we’ve come across. This 911 started life as a 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo-look. The appearance was backdated to that of a ’73 911 RSR while the engine was replaced with a 3.8 liter flat-six built to 993 Carrera RS specs. The interior received alterations to suit its increased sporting pretensions. The seller describes it as minimalist and that description seems apt. It was then painted in Ferrari Rosso Corso, presumably because the owner was a Ferrari enthusiast. The result is a very striking 911 whose RSR roots are clear on the outside, but which packs a very potent and more modern punch. I would imagine the performance of this 911 would be quite exhilarating and it is in that regard that this build significantly distances itself from many others we have seen. Does it justify the high price?

A friend of mine and I were sitting around recently, musing over what kind of 911 we’d own if we had the money. The genesis of this was his Porsche 911 ownership; he had a ’85 911 cabriolet, and while he enjoyed the car it was a bit….well, basic in terms of creature comforts and ride quality compared to his current M3. There’s some charm in that, but having driven both I’d agree that the M3 is the better day-to-day car in nearly every way. But both of us agree that, money no object, the idea behind the Singer 911s is pretty compelling; take a more modern 911 and give it the classic look, but keep most of the modern amenities plus the modern powertrain, brakes and handling. It’s become quite a popular recipe, and with classic 911 values seemingly on an endlessly rising trajectory it’s quite viable to restore or resto-mod a 911 into a dream ride and make your money back, if not then some. Today’s example is pretty interesting and unique, though – I believe it’s the first time I’ve seen someone take a 930 chassis and turn it into a “regular” 911. Backdating the late ’70s look to the early 1970s and adding in some of the iconic IROC bits, the builders took modern Fuchs replicas and a built up 3.8 naturally aspirated motor and created one pretty awesome package:

This past weekend was the Goodwood Festival of Speed; if you missed it once again, or have no idea what I’m talking about but are reading this, it’s something you desperately need to examine in your motoring life. There are historic races held around the world, and there are motoring events held around the world, so one more held on some rich dude’s driveway shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Wrong, it’s perhaps the single most unique and impressive automotive event in the world. The FoS reunites classic race cars often with their original drivers, driven in anger up the 1 mile hill of Lord March’s drive. It’s tougher than it would seem to be, and since it’s inception it’s attracted every major automobile manufacturer and gathered some of the most impressive machines ever made. From the first race cars to modern Formula One racers, the Festival of Speed is a celebration of all things automotive. For example, this past weekend, Mazda was the featured marque – but they also had gathered 7 of the 8 Mercedes-Benz 300SLRs ever built, and had Sir Stirling Moss, Hans Herrmann, Jochen Mass, Sir Jackie Stewart, and many other notable champions driving four of them up the hill. That was one of many priceless convoys parading by motorsports enthusiasts; it’s simply the largest collection of the most significant race cars ever made in the world coupled with the historic champions that drove them. Why talk about this in this tribute listing? Well, look closely at the lower portion of the door, and you’ll see that the builder of this 1972 Porsche 911 – which tribute’s Hurley Haywood’s Brumos-sponsored 1973 Sebring RSR – went so far as to include the Goodwood FoS number sticker from when the car appeared:

Getting into the world of historic Porsche race cars is fairly easy. All you really need to do is have a seriously large bank account, and virtually any day of the week a historically important factory race car will be for sale somewhere in the world. What that means most recently in the market is that when you’re viewing those great classic 911 silhouettes from Spa and Le Mans to Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen at classic motorsports events is that you’re looking at – at minimum – multi-hundred thousand dollar vehicles with multi-hundred thousand dollar restorations being run on liquified trust funds. The costs of running vintage cars hard are simply staggering. However, there’s a second tier of vehicles that gets you accepted into the lofty Elysium of vintage racers – period cars that were run by privateers. Today’s 911S is one such car; built in period and raced against the full factory efforts, it has some pretty significant names and achievements attached to it:

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